Eugene student to be sworn in as Oregon Kid Governor

Thursday

Erikka Baldwin, 10, was surprised to learn at a school-wide assembly in November that she was elected by fifth-grade students across the state to take over as Oregon’s Kid Governor.

Now, her new title is becoming a little more official.

Baldwin, a McCornack Elementary School fifth-grader, will be sworn in as the 2019 Oregon Kid Governor at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the Oregon State Capitol building in Salem. The ceremony will take place at in the Senate Chamber and is open to the public.

The Eugene School District student already has some lofty goals established for her one-year term, which begins in earnest this month. Baldwin, who ran on a platform of helping dogs and cats find their forever homes, intends to raise awareness and tackle the issue with the help of all of Oregon’s fifth-graders and a three-part plan.

The first part of the plan is to visit animals at shelters while they’re waiting to be adopted as part of her “Fur Friends” program, where students can be “bark buddies” or “kitty compadres” and read to the animals.

Step two of the plan is the Paw Prints Program, where students across the state will make posters during classroom art time that will be displayed at schools and businesses throughout Oregon to help raise awareness of the issue.

“There are approximately 37,695 fifth-graders in the state of Oregon,” Baldwin said. “If every kid made a poster, just think how many pets could get adopted.”

Her third and final idea would operate through her Fur-ever Families program, which would encourage schools and local animal shelters to partner during family events such as school carnivals where pets would be “the special guests of honor.” Families would be able to easily interact with the animals and “hopefully they would get adopted.”

The Kid Governor program was created by the Connecticut Center for Democracy and is in its second year in Oregon. Secretary of State Dennis Richardson, who also was present at the assembly, brought the program to Oregon to teach students about elections and the importance of civic engagement. All Oregon fifth-graders are qualified to participate.

Candidates for the position were required to submit a campaign video about a community issue important to them as well as a three-point plan designed to help other students take action on the issue. Seven final candidates moved forward to the weeklong general election, and their videos were posted to orkg.kidgovernor.org for fifth-grade voters to watch before casting their ballots.

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